Health care in danger: Implement Relevant Normative Frameworks

Conference participants could pledge to:

Legal and regulatory measures

• Enact domestic legislation repressing violence against healthcare
• Enact legislation on the rights and responsibilities of health care personnel
• Ensure the application of ethical principles for all health care personnel does not change in times of armed conflict and other emergencies and are the same as the ethical principles of health care in times of peace.

Dissemination

• Implement initiatives to enhance the knowledge of the population about the rules protecting delivery of health care and about ethical principles of healthcare applicable in all situations.

Coordination and institutional capacity measures

• Establish preventive coordination plans for organizing emergency response
• Establish mechanisms for dialogue between health care personnel and military and security forces to discuss challenges posed by the application of ethical principles of health care.

Action plan

Indicator(s) which could be considered:

• National legislation for protection of the delivery of health care is enforced
• Appropriate sanctions for violence against health care (i.e. criminal, administrative and disciplinary sanctions) are developed
• Initiatives to increase awareness about the rules protecting delivery of health care and rights and responsibilities of health care personnel.